Ethan Mars
Ethan Mars is one of the four lead playable characters in Heavy Rain and is the main protagonist. He is introduced in the prologue as a successful architect living an idyllic life, married to his loving wife Grace and the father of two young boys, Jason and Shaun. They live a visibly happy life as a family. However, this life is shattered when Jason, the eldest of the two boys, is killed by an impact with a car, despite Ethan diving in front to save him. Ethan's injuries put him in a coma, and he awakes psychologically scarred. Ethan Mars is voiced by and modelled after Pascal Langdale. Character Information The main narrative of Heavy Rain picks up two years after this tragedy. Haunted by Jason's death, Ethan's life has completely fallen apart. Divorced, he lives in a smaller, run-down house with joint custody of Shaun. The car accident that put him in a coma and the trauma of losing Jason have led to ochlophobia (a paralysing fear of crowds), depression, and occasional blackouts. Ethan's life takes an even darker turn when he takes Shaun to a nearby park and suffers another blackout episode. When he returns to his senses, he discovers that Shaun has vanished and eventually learns that he has become the latest victim of the Origami Killer. Ethan Mars must either lose Shaun or complete the Origami Killer's ‘Trials’ in order to save him. Ethan constantly has run-ins with the police who become convinced that he is in fact the lunatic Origami Killer. Biography Start of Game A normal day of Ethan's life is shown in Prologue. Then, in The Mall, he and his family go shopping at the very crowded malls. Eventually, Jason goes missing and Ethan finds him outside on the other side of the street. He runs towards Ethan without looking and as Ethan wasn't able to push him out of the way, Jason died and Ethan was placed in a coma for 6 months. Throughout the Game After Jason's death, Ethan's life turns into one of sadness. His wife at some point divorces him and his last son becomes cold and distant towards him. In the chapter Father and Son, examples of this distance can be seen. But one day, while at the park, Shaun Mars goes missing and Ethan turns depressed when he can't find him. Soon enough, he is sent a letter with a locker ticket inside it; in the locker, Ethan finds a box containing five origami figures, a cell phone, a memory card and a gun. Ethan determines that each origami figure is a trial of pain and courage; and that each trial will unlock some of the letters on a hangman in the phone. The letters combined will spell out Shaun's location. He hides the box in a motel where he temporarily decides to stay. Ethan assumes that he is the killer due to how he found an origami figure in his hand around the time Shaun went missing and due to how he sees the "drowning bodies". The first trial is The Bear, a trial in which Ethan must drive against traffic for five miniutes and reach five miles. Ethan cannot reject this trial. After he fails or succeed, Ethan will meet and develop a friendship with Madison Paige. Soon enough, Ethan will do the second trial; The Butterfly. He can accept or decline the trial. Here, he must first crawl through a claustrophobic pipe filled with broken glass. Then he finds a room that is a maze of electrical condensers (it also has a door labelled coward which fails the challenge). With much tactic and skill, he can get through the maze getting hurt some or alot. He will end the trial if he takes too much pain. Madison will then tend to his wounds as he opens up the next figure. Meanwhile, due to the revelations that Ethan's psychologist made on him, Carter Blake determines that he is the Origami Killer. The third trial is the hardest in terms of pain, and it is is The Lizard - a trial in which Ethan must cut off the last section of one his fingers. He can accept or decline. Afterwards, Ethan Mars and Madison will be chased in the chapter Fugitive and escapes from Blake and Norman. Ethan can be arrested if Madison is not quick enough. If he is arrested, Norman Jayden will later break him out in Under Arrest. The fourth trial is The Shark, where Ethan must kill another man -- Brad Silver. Before breaking in or killing, Ethan will be given the option to decline the trial. If Ethan survives the QTE where Brad tries to fight back, Brad will beg for mercy and admit that he has two daughters which he would like to see again. Ethan's decision is to kill or not. In On the Loose, Ethan sits and discusses with Madison over how distraught he is that he didn't or did kill Brad (he will sit alone if Madison is dead). If Madison is still alive, then Ethan will make love with her; only to discover that behind Ethan's back, she has been writing stories about him behind his back. Ethan is now given the option to forgive or reject her. Either way, the SWAT team fInds Ethan at his motel and he must try to escape arrest again. If he doesn't, then he will be arrested. If he does, he will be able to go to the last trial -- The Rat. Here, he can drink the poison that will allegedly kill him in exactly an hour -- or he can walk away. Now, Ethan must pick the correct address. If he completed no trials, he will automatically fail to find the warehouse. If he completed them all, he will automatically find it. If he completed some but not all, then he must pick the correct location. If he chooses the wrong address, he will fail and blames himself for not finding Shaun. Also, if Madison Paige survived up to the chapter Killer's Place and found the right address, then she can call Ethan to give him the right address. Ethan will then appear or not at the warehouse depending on if he found the address or not. If so he will meet Scott Shelby, who is the real Origami Killer. Then, an ending will occur for Ethan depending on a few key varialbles: whether Shaun lived or died, whether Madison was forgiven, whether Ethan got arrested in On the Loose and whether he died after being shot by the police. The best ending is A New Life, in which he, Shaun and Madison move into a new apartment and live happily ever after. The worst ending is Helpless, in which Ethan hangs himself in prison over his son's death and his failure to protect him. It should be noted that Ethan will always commit suicide if Shaun dies. Points Where the Character can Die *''The Old Warehouse'' (By getting shot by the police after Blake mistakes him for pulling out a gun) *Epilogue —''Helpless'' (By hanging himself in prison for not managing to save Shaun) *Epilogue —''Origami Blues'' (By killing himself with the gun for not managing to save Shaun) *Epilogue —''Tears In The Rain (By shooting himself near Shaun's grave because he blamed himself for both of his son's death) It should be noted that there is no way Ethan will accept Shaun's death and move on with his life (except for when he is shot by the police). Trials ''Main Article: Trials During the game, Ethan must partake in five trials to obtain groups of letters of an address that will ultimately lead him to his son's location. *The Bear - Drive against traffic for five miles within five minutes. *The Butterfly - Crawl through a tunnel filled with broken glass, then go through a maze of electrical condensors. *The Lizard - Cut the last section of one of his fingers off. *The Shark - Kill a man (who in Ethan's case, is Brad Silver). *The Rat - Drink a potion that will kill him in 60 minutes (the potion doesn't really kill him and is more a test of will). Romance Ethan can develop an intimate relationship with Madison Paige, and the player later has the option of consummating their relationship. If (a forgiven) Madison and Ethan survive and Shaun is saved, Ethan will be married to Madison in the "A New Life" ending and purchase a home, the three of them living happily ever after. thumb|480px|left|Ethan and Madison: Love Story (incl. non-graphic sex scene) Trivia *Two years before Heavy Rain's release, Ethan's house was depicted as being much smaller. *The apartment that Ethan is moving into at the end of the game is the same New York City apartment that was lived in by the hero of David Cage's previous game, Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy). Ethan even makes a comment about "a friend" helping him get it. That friend is assumed to be Fahrenheit's main character, Lucas Kane. *"Father And Son"'s loading screen is different from any others that Ethan appears in. *Ethan barely fights. Unlike Madison Paige, Scott Shelby and Norman Jayden, the only confrontation he has is with Brad Silver during The Shark. *Out of the four main characters, Ethan has the least amount of deaths in the game, although he has the greatest number of Epilogues (Helpless, Origami Blues and Tears in the Rain) in which he dies. The only chapter where Ethan can die is The Old Warehouse. *The Old Warehouse is the only death that does not involve Ethan committing suicide; instead he gets killed by the police. *He is one of only two main characters (the other being Scott) who cannot die before The Old Warehouse. *Ethan crosses paths with Norman Jayden four times, Madison Paige numerous times, and Scott Shelby twice. Once in the mall (which is revealed in The Old Warehouse) and in The Old Warehouse, although the only time Ethan confronts Scott in person was in The Old Warehouse. *The only chapter where Ethan appears as a non-playable character is Under Arrest. *During the early stages of Heavy Rain, Ethan's blackouts were orignially going to involve dreams, including him swiming underwater, trying to save Shaun and seeing John Shepperd. These dreams were removed due to the lack of story progression. *The only scenes from Chapter 1 where Ethan does not appear are Sleazy Place, Crime Scene and Hassan's Shop. *Ethan is the only main character to be playable in another character's chapter. He is playable during Norman's chapter, Welcome, Norman and Madison's chapter, First Encounter, The Nurse and Fugitive. *Ethan was voted #11 on Game Informer's "30 Characters Who Defined A Decade." *Most of Ethan's death involve him getting shot, however, the only one where Ethan dies without being shot is Helpless, where he hangs himself in prison. *Even Ethan suspects himself of being a schizophrenic, the symptoms he describes are actually more typical of Dissasociative Identity Disorder. *Despite the fact that he is one of four playable characters, he is considered by many to be the main protagonist due to the fact that the story is focused more on him than on the other characters (Madison Paige, Scott Shelby and Norman Jayden). *He appears in 21 chapters. *He is playable in 20 of these chapters as he is non-playable in Under Arrest. *He is also partly playable in The Old Warehouse if he gets to the warehouse. *7 of the epilogues are based around him. He also appears in 1 of Madison's epilogue. *Unlike Norman and Madison, Ethan is the only playable character to can't be killed by Scott Shelby. Chapter appearances *Prologue *The Mall *Father and Son *The Shrink *The Park *Where's Shaun? *Welcome, Norman *Paparazzi *Lexington Station *The Motel *The Bear *First Encounter *The Butterfly *The Nurse *The Lizard *Fugitive *Under Arrest (non-playable) *The Shark *On the Loose *The Rat *The Old Warehouse (Can be killed) *Epilogue - Ethan's Grave (Dead) *Epilogue - A New Start *Epilogue - A New Life *Epilogue - Innocent *Epilogue - Helpless (Killed) *Epilogue - Origami Blues (Killed) *Epilogue - Tears in the Rain (Killed) *Epilogue - Dead Heroine (If Ethan survives in The Old Warehouse) Murders committed *Brad Silver *Scott Shelby Gallery Ethan.jpg|Ethan Mars Thumbnail.aspx.jpeg|Ethan Mars Mars.JPG|''Paparazzi'' 0018.jpg|Ethan awake from his blackouts. 0019.jpg|Ethan in the tunnel in the butterfly trial. 0020.jpg|Ethan and Shaun . 0021.jpg|First encounter. 0022.jpg|Where's Shaun. 0023.jpg|Ethan and Grace 0034.jpg|Ethan's loading screen. Quotations *"Everything I did, I did for love." *"I'm a father too... But I'm no killer." *"JAAAASOOONN!!!!" *"SHAAAUUN!!!" *"I'm a father too... But I have no choice." *" No ones gonna stop me from saving my son." Mars, Ethan Mars, Ethan Mars, Ethan